10 Common Mistakes That Make Perfume Unpleasant

Many people use perfume daily, just like we put on clothes. Wearing your favorite scent can lift your mood and may even make you more attractive to others. However, it’s important to remember that what smells good to you can be toxic to others. What if the perfume you wear causes discomfort to others? Or what if you get a headache from smelling someone else’s perfume? What could be the reason for this?

Perfumes with mixed fragrance ingredients

Fragrances comprise as few as 10 and as many as 300 different fragrance ingredients. Perfumes contain 15-30% of these fragrance ingredients, deodorants contain 1%, and soaps contain 0.5-2%. These fragrances often have lipophilic ingredients and quickly penetrate the skin. If you are allergic to fragrance ingredients, even a small exposure can cause dermatitis.

Threats to skin health

The ingredients included in perfumes can cause allergic contact dermatitis. Many cases involve people seeing a doctor with contact dermatitis on their neck or wrists after using perfume. Moreover, long-term, heavy exposure to allergenic chemicals can worsen into chronic dermatitis, causing skin thickening. Therefore, if you must use perfume, it is recommended to use it only once before going out.

What if you have dermatitis with itching?

If you have dermatitis with itching, you should suspect a perfume allergy. Fragrance ingredients have complex chemical structures, so they may interact with other similar ingredients and cross-react with substances with comparable chemical structures, leading fragrance-related antigens to cause contact dermatitis. Not only perfumes but deodorants, soaps, and lotions also contain fragrances, so if you have dermatitis due to a fragrance, you must check all ingredients before purchasing cosmetics.

If you have conjunctivitis or rhinitis, no!

Perfumes are also not suitable for those with conjunctivitis or rhinitis. The perfume can worsen conjunctivitis and intensify rhinitis symptoms such as sneezing, clear nasal discharge, and itching. Perfumes can also trigger or worsen asthma symptoms, and even without any underlying conditions, exposure to a large amount can cause sneezing, nasal discharge, and difficulty breathing.

Pregnant women should avoid too

It’s also recommended that pregnant women avoid using perfumes, as the chemical substances in artificial fragrances can be transmitted to the baby. The chemical substances inhaled by a pregnant woman can be transferred to the baby via the umbilical cord or breast milk, and long-term exposure can increase the risk of premature birth and affect the development of the reproductive organs in male babies.

Vegan perfumes also developed

Vegan perfumes refer to perfumes that do not contain allergenic substances that can be included in animal-derived ingredients or artificial fragrances. The global vegan cosmetics market has increased by about 35-40% over the past five years, indicating that people are more interested in previously neglected areas. Vegan perfumes consider the ingredients, make the perfume containers from recyclable glass, and offer refillable products, making efforts to be environmentally friendly.

Why do you get a headache from someone else’s perfume?

Our noses perceive the same substance differently depending on its concentration. In other words, when a good smell is too strong, the brain perceives it as harmful. This is because the brain’s mechanism for receiving smells changes depending on the intensity of the fragrance. When the concentration is low, the scent mainly involves receptor 1, but as the concentration increases, it requires receptor 2, causing the brain to perceive a different smell. In other words, our bodies can show a reaction of avoidance in response to excessive concentrations, which can even cause headaches.

Attention needs to be paid to those who get headaches from the smell of perfume

If you get a headache from smelling someone else’s perfume, it could be a migraine. A migraine is characterized by “unilateral pain” and “pulsating pain” that lasts for a specific duration. It often starts when you wake up in the morning and frequently occurs when you smell perfume, during exercise, while riding a car, or after consuming cheese, chocolate, or coffee.

Correct perfume testing method

When testing a perfume, it is appropriate to put it on a test sheet or clean skin and smell the residual scent after 5-10 minutes. If you smell too many fragrances at once, your sense of smell may become dull, and it becomes difficult to make judgments, so it is not appropriate to smell more than 2-3 different scents at once. If you feel your sense of smell has become dull, you can wake up your sense of smell by smelling coffee or coffee beans before testing again. It is best to put it on areas where the pulse beats, such as the wrist or behind the neck.

How to wear perfume in a healthy way

When wearing perfume with added artificial fragrances, it’s best to avoid enclosed spaces like inside a car or a room. Artificial fragrances spread well, increasing the concentration of chemical substances in the air. If you use it indoors, ventilation is essential, and it is advisable to take a break every three days rather than using it daily.

By. Shin Young Jeon